::::

In honor of the ending of the Tour de France today I thought I'd post a few photos from when Kris and I got to go to the Tour of California bike race last Feb. We had a blast. Kris's friend Jeff had VIP passes we got to use, and so we got to stand right at the edge of the course, right before the finish line. It was the time trail stage, which meant that we got to see each of the riders go by alone.
I got a few good pictures and a lot of bad ones. And the guys near the end--the exciting fast ones--I couldn't even get photos of because everybody was hanging over the edge of the barrier, sticking their dumb old point'n'shoots way out in the way, so that I couldn't see anything. I don't usually feel short, but I felt short that day!

Here's Floyd Landis, one of Kris's favs.

Thor Hushovd, another guy we really like.
And now a few random guys that I can't identify because we lost the roster with all the numbers/names on it, dang it!



I hope we get to go to the Tour of California again, and someday to the Tour de France. It would be so fun!

::look look!::

Look at what our friend Rachel made for Max and me.

Yep, it's Mama Hedgehog and Baby Hedgehog!
Only a true friend could make something so inspired for us, right? (remember mama fish and mama penguin?)


Thanks Rachel!!!! We love them!

::fambly::

Tonight we got to go and eat dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's house (Mike & Lorena). It was super fun. The bummer was that somehow my camera was out of batteries.
So I didn't get any pictures of Max head butting my cousin James in the rear. Or Max doing flips on Uncle Mike's big recliner. Or Max attacking Cammon and almost choking him to death. Or Max chasing the little dog around the house. Or Max attacking cousin Sean. Or Max choking on broccolli. (Max had a cousin sleepover with Parker last night, and didn't get much sleep. He's basically been bouncing off the walls)
But I did get a picture of Max in Sean's motorcycle helmet. And he's doing the John Travolta no less.

He looks really serious about it, doesn't he?
When he got done with the helmet the visor was just one big sticky fingerprint.

I also got a picture of little nephew Scooter being afraid of my big scary lens.

He likes to let me suck his thumb sometimes. It's very comforting.

I captured little cousin Izzy (my cousin Erin's little girl) playing with cars. She's so cute.

I didn't get any pictures of her begging cake from me, but she did and I enjoyed it.

I'm going to leave out the photo of Charlotte chewing, just to be nice. But I have to say I like it.
Some more of what I got:

My Aunt Keven with sons Sean & James. Visiting from Texas.

Dinnertime. Yummy food.

A cute baby. (Erin's other daughter Elizabeth!)


That's the story. Now Max is in bed. Thank goodness. And I'm not far from there myself. I'm not doing too well with the two hour time difference. It's wearing me out!

::visiting home::

Max and I made it to Utah. My Grandad was visiting and our trips overlapped by a few hours so we got to talk and hang out.
I'm enjoying my nephews and all the family. Today we get to go and visit Kari at her house.
Fun fun fun!

::annoying::

So there are things we really like about living out here in the East, and there are things we don't like. The things we don't like can be generally categorized into two statements.
1. It's too crowded
2. It's too expensive

And yes, this is coming from people who grew up in the west where there's a lot more space, and people who just spent four years in the midwest where some things (like real estate and rent) are amazingly affordable.

But anyway, that's how we feel. And both of those points were reinforced in our minds this weekend on our Palmyra NY trip.
I have more pictures and stuff to post about it later, but I have to gripe a little bit.

The toll roads out here are enough to drive you crazy. They're everywhere, but there aren't many in RI, so whenever we go on a trip we're caught slightly unawares. And the bummer is, if you don't have cash to pay the toll at the end, and you get off to go to the bank you have to pay double tolls. Ouch.
Anyway, this time somehow I had some cash, thank goodness. Because one way the tolls added up to over $13. One stretch of road was $10!! So crazy.

When you're stuck on the toll road there are these big "travel plazas" directly off the freeway. You can go to those if you need to eat or use the bathroom and that way you don't have to pay extra tolls for getting on and off. Great deal you might think, right? Helping out the traveller, right?
WRONG.
We went to one with a McDonalds. It was so crowded. I had to wait in a huge line to use the bathroom. Then the McDonald's didn't have a dollar menu. It evidently didn't exist, and the value meals started at about $7. I call that extortion. Then it was so busy we barely found a spot to sit down and eat. Yuck.

I brought a cooler of food for our lunch on sunday. We thought it would be great, we could just stop at a rest area, eat our pbjs at a picnic table and relax.
Unfortunately, somebody had taken away all the picnic tables. All was left at the rest area were concrete pads in the midst of a big field where people let their dogs poop.

There were really big ants too. Luckily we had a blanket, but we still weren't all that comfortable. What a bummer.
What happened to good old fashioned American picnicing? What jerk decided that they wanted to make things so miserable for people that they'd be forced to go to their rotten plazas?

The bathrooms have been removed too, evidently. All there is are signs informing folks of where the nearest "travel plaza" is.
Doesn't do you much good when the 5 year old is doing the dance.

Later on we had to stop at one of the plazas to use the bathroom. It was packed with cranky people. So crowded. And some old lady got really mad at Max for stepping on her foot (supposedly) and gave us crusty looks until we finally escaped the place. If you step right next to a crazy 5 year old whose mom is already trying to contain him and drag him out to the car, you put your feet in danger.

Anyway there you go. Everything is way too crowded and too dang expensive. Argh.

::::

He'll be riding the tour before we know it.

::cousins::

My dad's cousin with his wife and kids happened to be visiting Cape Cod last week. (Thank goodness for facebook, or else how would any of us know where each other is??)
It was only a couple of hours drive away, so Max and I decided we would have an adventure and went out to see them while poor Kris was stuck working.

But here's the bummer. I brought my camera but I didn't bring my memory card. Tragic. The cape was beautiful, the kids are adorable and Max was having a blast.
My phone just doesn't measure up. But I tried anyway.

Look at Max's face. Isn't he having the best time? The kids are such good friends with each other, they're really enjoyable to watch together. And they were so nice to him. They just sucked him into their little world.


Moral of the story? If you vaycay in Cape Cod we'll come see you. That's all there is to it. Oh, and Max loves his cousins.

::outrageous::

I've been fighting a battle with Max for oh such a long time.
It's been going on ever since he was finally toilet trained.
The man just doesn't like to wash his hands. I'm sure this is something that other little boys (maybe all little kids) can identify with. I mean, washing your hands is a ton of work.
But as all the moms out there I'm sure would agree, it must must must be done.

So as he's gotten older I've ceased to supervise his every little bathroom visit, and kind of trust (and by that I just mean hope) that he's doing what he's supposed to. Well, I always remind him to wash, or when he comes out I ask if he's done it.
For a while he was trying to be sneaky and go to the bathroom silently. He'd sneak out without flushing so nobody would know he'd done it and he wouldn't be forced to wash. I love finding surprises in the toilet. Ewwww.

So we've pretty much gotten him to stop that.

BUT.

Often I'll ask him if he's washed, and he says yes. For a while he was saying yes and it wasn't true, so I always ask to feel his hands to see if they feel wetish.
So he'll let me feel them. Sometimes he's had such a weird expression on his face though. I knew something was up, I just didn't know what. I was hoping it was nothing serious.

Today he took a bathroom break before lunch. Something I was doing took me in there just as he had flushed. Guess what I found? A kid dipping his hands in the toilet water. He jumped away quickly with the most guilty look on his face.
I knew immediately what had been going on! So those little "washed" wet hands that had touched me so many times had been dipped in toilet water! ARRRGHAHHHH! Hopefully, like today it was after the flush. I can only hope.
Who knows how long this has been going on.

So I'm looking forward to Kris getting home. We're going to have to devise a punishment that fits the crime.
I'm thinking something having to do with swirlys?

::grand prize::

I can't believe I almost left the best parade outfit out! This guy is serious about the fourth of July, let me tell you.

Really he looks to me like an upgrade on Rex Kwon Do from Napoleon Dynamite.
I think he's probably put in his two seasons fighting in the Octagon.